Obs. Forms: 4–6 canel, 5 canell, 5–6 kanel, 6 canelle, cannel(l, 7–8 cannal(l. See also CANAL. [ME. canel, kanel, a. ONF. canel channel of a river, conduit, etc.; the central OF. form was chanel, whence the parallel ME. chanel, later channel. F. canel, chanel, correspond to Pr., Sp. canal, It. canale:—L. canāl-em pipe, groove, channel, etc. After CANAL was introduced in 16th c., ca·nnel gradually became obsolete, though sense 2 still exists in the form KENNEL, and CANNEL-BONE, from sense 5, is in 18th-c. dictionaries. In both of these senses channel also occurs as a parallel form; and all the other senses have been taken up either by CHANNEL or by CANAL.]
† 1. (form canel) The natural bed of a stream of water; a water-course. Obs. Now CHANNEL.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1866. He did þe waters ga til þair canels þat þai com fra. Ibid., 22577 (Gött.). In-til hir canel [v.r. chanel] sal scho [þe se] turn, And als til þairis ilk a burn.
† 2. (forms canel, cannel) The gutter or surface water-course in a street, or by a road. This sense still survives as KENNEL sb.2, q.v. (The 18th-c. spelling cannal was app. influenced by canal.)
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 335. Þei grutchiden aȝens þis water, and drunken podel water of þe canel.
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xxxix. 244. Is likned to a flood … that trowbled as a kanel schal be.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 60/2. Canel, or chanelle [H. in the weye, P. in the strete], canalis [P. aquagium].
1533. More, Apol., xxxii. Wks. 896/1. They wyll … knele downe in the kanel and make their praiers in the open stretes.
1563. Homilies, II. Gluttony, etc. (1859), 303. They lie stinking in our bodies, as in a lothsome sink or canell.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 6 Sept. It was pretty to see how hard the women did work in the cannells, sweeping of water.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 83. We seem them take the waters of sewers and the common cannals in the streets.
fig. 1540. Elyot, Image Gov. (1556), 59. All the stynkynge canelles of vice.
1657. Reeve, God’s Plea, 92. Unravell your lives, sweep the hid corners, rake the cannels, [etc.].
† 3. (form canel) A pipe or tube; a tap for a cask. Obs.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 464. Canels or pipes wynes forth to lede Into the vat.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, in Babees Bk., 121. Looke þow haue tarrers [and] wyne canels.
1629. Church-w. Acc. Houghton-le-Spring, Giuen for a spidick and a Cannell—jd.
† 4. Channel, passage. Obs.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Covrtyer (1577), X ij a–b. When the canelles of the body be so feeble, that the soule can not through them worke hyr feates.
† 5. The neck. Obs. = CHANNEL sb.1 10, KENNEL sb.3 [An ancient sense, the origin of which is not quite clear. Cotgr. has F. canneau du col ‘the nape of the neck,’ Littré ‘le conduit qui traverse le cou,’ evidently the medullary canal of the cervical vertebræ (see F. nuque in Devic). Mätzner compares also L. canālis animæ wind-pipe. Hence CANNEL-BONE, CHANNEL-BONE.]
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2298. Kepe þy kanel at þis kest.
† 6. (See quot.) Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 60 (MS. K.). Canel of a belle, canellus.
7. Comb. (sense 2), canel-dung, canel-raker (cf. KENNEL); (sense 5) canel-piece, a piece of armor for the neck; see also CANNEL-BONE.
1593. H. Smith, Serm. (1866), II. 33. When we knocked at the *cannel-door, then the good door was shut.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxlviii. 316. The women … came out with stones & *canel dunge [Fabyan 599 ‘ordure of the strete’].
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, III. xxii. Some wolde haue of plate a bauer That on the brest fastned be a forne The *Canell pece more easy to be borne.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorell’s B., 10. Bewardes, brycke borners, and *canel rakers.
a. 1540. Barnes, Wks. (1573), 244/1. Carter or Cardinall, butcher or Byshop, tancardbearer or cannelraker.
1580. Baret, Alv., C 58. A cannel raker, purgator platearum.
